Daniel Weintraub While it may take over a lifetime to define friendship, there are certain tenets that friendship scholars tend to hold on to. Is friendship about being together? Finding oneself? Finding one another? Well, yes and no, depending on where one draws their sources from. I will argue that Confucian, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Roman,(…)
Rachel Wolchok Professor Mahallati RELG 274 March 1, 2019 Response Paper 2: Divine Friendship In reading religious texts and authors, I was surprised by the amount of discussion on friendship as a way to further one’s virtuous self and achieve moral integrity. While this is sensible, as religion is the constant striving to be(…)
Classical philosophers like Plato and Aristotle have contributed indelibly to political philosophy. To dissect the political values of these great thinkers, one must first look at the context with which they lived. Society in Hellenic Greece was heavily based on friendship. As a matter of fact, no other historical period emphasized friendship quite(…)
Rachel Wolchok Professor Mahallati RELG 274 February 18, 2019 Friendship in Politics While political theorists in 2019 might face difficulty relating friendship to politics in our current climate, Plato and Aristotle of ancient Greece find an almost symbiotic relationship between governance and friendship. In their analyses of friendship, both thinkers reach similar conclusions; they realize(…)
The meaning of friendship espoused by Plato and Aristotle warrants a reanalysis in the twenty-first century. It can be said with some confidence that both philosophers would be appalled at the rejection of friendship throughout the modern world under the guises of national security, economic development, and most ironic, individual freedom. Indeed, the principle of(…)
On Friendship as the Essential Teachings of the Qur’an The Qur’an is a book of great wealth and knowledge, guiding over a billion of its followers every year towards salvation. Despite this, wars, feuds, torture, and oppression have been claimed to be justified by the text itself.[i] I propose, however, that the very elemental aspects(…)
My Mini Bio V3 Alan (Al) S. Carroll May 15, 2018 This “Mini” bio is being written at the request of Oberlin College Professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati so that his students in Shiraz, Iran will realize the unusual mixture of students in his Oberlin College classes on Friendship and Islam. It is “Mini” in that(…)
On the many Exegesis of the Qur’an Despite being the direct word of God, the Qur’an has continued to be interpreted by human scholars across a wide range of factors. Some believe the text should be understood by the prophet Muhammad’s own action, while yet others herald the tradition set over the last 1300 years.(…)
Islam is such a world-changing religion not only because it has over a billion followers, but because it brought immense new concepts of equality and justice to jahiliyya of pre-Islamic Arabia. The concepts of justice, forgiveness and friendship became increasingly vital to Arabian traditions and way of life, which is why Islam became a religion(…)
The Qur’an on Community, Friendship, and Forgiveness The Qur’an, despite being a religious text, holds the basis for many laws within Islamic states. In fact, the very nature of law and justice seems deeply intrenched in the moral code put forth by the Qur’an. The 5 pillars of Islam actively engage in this communal setting.(…)
Companionship; On the Eschatology of the Qur’an To be a member of the Islamic faith, one must carry three core beliefs: That there is only one God, that Muhammad is the prophet of God, and that an afterlife exists. The first two beliefs rely heavily on the tangible, living world. One should follow Allah’s teachings(…)
In looking at Mitias’ five eras of Western history, I am intrigued by the movement from Hellenic to Contemporary modes of living. While Hellenic and Hellenistic eras emphasize the essence of good as integral to individual salvation, Medieval and Modern eras put emphasis on the state, hierarchy, power dynamics, and a reverence either for religion(…)
No one in the modern West is a more eloquent lamenter of unjust bias than Malcolm Gladwell, who in his Revisionist History series digs into the counterintuitive inconsistencies behind conventionally-accepted history and wisdom. In “The Prime Minister and the Prof,” an episode about “the friendship that changed the course(…)
Megan Cox RELG 274 Friendship: Perspectives 15 February 2018 Response Paper 1: “Why do we Need Academic Studies of Friendship in Post-Modernity and how Revisiting Ancient Philosophers on Friendship Can Help these Studies?” In completing the readings and participating in course discussion, I have become engrossed with the intricacies, relationships, and even inconsistencies(…)
Introduction In the academic and political worlds, the Islamic faith and its Muslim followers are often deemed incompatible with the broader global environment. More often than not, outsiders pit Islam against concepts of reason and civility, using it as a scapegoat for socio-political problems and deeply-seated historical trauma. Yet, it seems almost impossible that conflict(…)
